No Bull: It's Mudder's Day In Derby

LOUISVILLE — Nick Zito has a hunch somebody up there likes him and the horses he trains.

Despite the fact that Go For Gin's record showed that a sloppy track conceivably could make this little horse the toast of the town, Zito didn't pray for rain.

"It sounds corny, but that's up to the Man Upstairs," Zito said in midweek when the subject was broached. "On Saturday afternoon if it's raining, I'll just figure He's looking out for me-again."

It was raining Saturday afternoon at Churchill Downs. The rain had stopped by the time the horses paraded postward for the 120th running of the Kentucky Derby, but the track stayed sloppy.

So, Go For Gin simply went out and did what seems to come naturally to sons of Cormorant when they find themselves on a sloppy surface-he ran a superb race.

On paper it was one of the most competitive Derbys ever run.

On the sloppy track it was Go For Gin, the fifth choice in the betting at 9.10-1, by 2 lengths over green but game Strodes Creek. Finishing third, 4 1/2 lengths behind the winner, was Blumin Affair.

"You've got to be lucky and blessed," said the 45-year-old Zito, who won in a completely different way with stretch-running Strike the Gold in 1991. "Look at the track today. Look at this horse, a superior off-track horse.

"Go For Gin has a lot of heart and desire. Sometimes the best horse doesn't win the big race, but instead it's the best horse that day."

Holy Bull, the 2.20-1 favorite of the crowd of 130,594, turned into a bull in a china shop and finished 12th in the field of 14. The fearsome front-runner never made it to the front.

"Every step he tried to take seemed to be the wrong step," said jockey Mike Smith. "We had a bad start-he got away flat-footed, and we got wiped out. If he breaks running, maybe I get away from there with no problems. Then, on the first turn, he got wiped out again.

"Nothing went right. It was nobody's fault. I guess it just wasn't meant to be."

Meanwhile, everything fell into place for Go For Gin. Chris McCarron, who came from California to ride the colt from New York for the first time, proved a superb replacement.

Jerry Bailey had ridden the colt in all but two of his nine previous races. But after Go For Gin ran second behind Irgun in his final Derby prep, the Wood Memorial, Bailey was offered a chance to ride Irgun and accepted.

Zito decided to wait until after the April 23 Arkansas Derby to see who was available to replace Bailey. While he was waiting, he got a phone call from McCarron's agent, who told him the jockey who took Alysheba to the winner's circle in the 1987 Derby was interested.

"You've got the mount," Zito said.

Subsequently, Irgun injured a hoof and never made it to the Derby, and Bailey wound up on Blumin Affair.

The absence of Irgun and his abundant early speed suggested that Holy Bull might be able to get the lead with ease and never look back.

Zito was determined not to let that happen. The 45-year-old trainer's instructions were to apply immediate pressure on Holy Bull if no other horse were breathing down the favorite's neck.

"You have to rush your horse leaving the gate to be in a position to apply pressure," McCarron said. "My horse shot out of the gate."

Instead of stalking Holy Bull, McCarron found himself right behind Ulises, a member of the mutuel field. Acting on his own, Go For Gin took the lead shortly after the opening quarter.

McCarron, whose only experience with Go For Gin had come in a workout seven days earlier, feared they might be doing too much too soon. "I didn't expect to be in front the way I was," he said. "I grabbed hold of him and tried to get him to come back to me, but he didn't act like he wanted to. Nick had told me he's a free-running horse, so I decided not to discourage him.

"At that point he wasn't very relaxed. But then he got into a nice, smooth rhythm. He felt like he was just galloping. I thought to myself, `If he can gallop like this to the head of the lane, he's going to be very tough.'

"Horses were running well down the middle of the racetrack, and there were a couple of horses that moved on the inside in a couple of races who didn't seem to finish with all that much gusto.

"I thought three or four horses off the fence was a safe place to be, so I just stayed in the same path all the way around.

"In the last eighth-mile he was kind of drafting out. I just let him drift a little bit and kept him running."

In winning for the fifth time in 10 races for owners William Condren and Joseph Cornacchia (who also were partners in Strike the Gold), Go For Gin traveled the 1 1/4 miles in 2:03 3/5 and paid $20.20, $8.40 and $5.80.

"Today is not only Go For Gin's day, but Nick's day," Condren said. "Nick did an outstanding job of having our horse peak on the first Saturday in May."